French scientists on Guam use experimental balloons to study tropical cyclones

French scientist and engineers plan to launch helium-filled balloons into tropical cyclones to gather real-time data on what occurs within the storms.
Rick Cruz/PDN

Engineers, with the AeroClipper experiment, work beside two of three helium-filled nine meter blimps in a warehouse in Hagåtña on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers with the project hope to launch the air vessels into a weather system to gather data on storms.(Photo: Rick Cruz/PDN)

French scientists working from a Hagåtña warehouse plan to launch experimental miniature blimps off the coast of the island and into the center of developing cyclones.

The goal is to learn more about how typhoons and hurricanes form and intensify.

The three $40,000 balloons, called AeroClippers, are about 30 feet long and carry equipment to measure atmospheric and ocean surface conditions for up to 30 days, said Jean-Philippe Duvel of France's Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique.

"The balloon will be attracted into the eye of the cyclone," Duvel said. "After, it will remain prisoner of the eye, and it will follow the eye."

Duvel, a researcher in tropical meteorology, said the goal is to gather data so scientists can better forecast the path and intensity of storms.

Andre Vargas, who works for the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales - the French equivalent of NASA - said the helium-filled AeroClipper is attached to a guideline in the ocean, and functions somewhere "between a balloon and a buoy."

As it travels about 100 feet above the sea, it constantly transmits data back to researchers.

If it gets too close to other nations, the researchers will release the helium and deflate the balloon.

AeroClipper "is totally driven by the wind," Duvel said. "The only way to decide the trajectory is to forecast."

Duvel said a couple of the balloons were picked up by Tropical Cyclone Dora in the Indian Ocean in 2007, and their locations were recorded as they swirled around and the storm weakened to a tropical depression. But the instruments that were suppose to measure atmospheric conditions were not functioning at the time.

The French researchers are working closely with the National Weather Service on Guam.

The island was chosen as the test site because this is one of the best places in the world for the AeroClippers to be drawn into developing tropical cyclones, Weather Service meteorologist Chip Guard said. However, there are no cyclones developing in the area right now.

In contrast, the Atlantic hurricane season has been unusually active this year, with eight hurricanes so far.

The researchers are scheduled to be here until Oct. 21, and up to three balloon releases may be conducted.

The electronic package that is carried by helium-filled blimps which are part of the AeroClipper experiments, as photographed at a warehouse in Hagåtña, on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers with the project hope to launch the nine meter air vessels, equipped with the meteorological measuring sensors, into a weather system to gather real-time data to learn what happens within a storm.(Photo: Rick Cruz/PDN)